Poetry

  Famine de l'âme The soul, deprived of one essential thing, Cannot rely on dusty stores of hope; Seeking to mitigate starvation's sting, Finds worthless every erstwhile way to cope: Profound...

  —for Li Hongzhi The unacknowledged legislators know the truth: the Buddha shows one thousand hands to foster heaven’s circulation, so the standing stance is seen throughout the lands and...

  The turkey that we blithely ate Had little cause to celebrate The final Thursday in November. It's customary to dismember A hapless bird that's plucked and trussed To satisfy our boundless...

  Thanksgiving 1984 2020 Wear a mask until you eat and never touch your face. Muzzle up between each bite and when you’re saying grace. No more guests than four to eight at six full feet apart. To...

  Pandemic epidemic, fever, chills; As viral spiral sickens, quickens, kills. We’re tasked and masked with no place left to go. A lockdown, knockdown, drag-on TKO. The churches, schools, and...

  Where are the leaves that branches bore? They’re falling fast on forest floor, A cornucopia outspread, Of orange, yellow, brown, and red: Reminders of a settled score. Ah this, my gloomy...

  Don’t place your limits on this grief of mine or try to cheer me out of feeling sorrow. I need to wear it for a longer time and won’t be ready to let go tomorrow. The ragged tears that burn...

  The Shisendō is a hideaway villa in the eastern hills of Kyoto, Japan, created by poet and calligrapher Jōzan Ishikawa (1583–1672) as a place where he could read and write classical Chinese poetry...

  Cricket The game of Cricket, I’ll relate, Goes back to fifteen fifty-eight, Upon a field in Guildford way, In Surrey, many miles away. The game was played by many more, Up to the English...

Mozart on His Kegelstatt Trio Quite recently I wrote a little trio While wasting time at skittles with some friends. We needed something for the clarinet, Something not dolorous, but not con brio— A...

Hearts of Darkness a rondeau redoublé A heart of darkness mocks and flouts the rules. It robs our orb of honesty and light. It tempts then toys with sycophantic fools--- Duped souls that sate the dark...

  The Mask Sin wears a cherubic mask And beams forth paradise. “Come in, recline, and bask.” The discerning eye looks twice: The gate shuts into a vice.     Old Nick’s...

Above the clouds, a vulture soars, the leader of a culture war. The bird of prey is wide awake, ready to punish grave mistakes. A rooster crows with all his might, and fast, the vulture drops in...

The Violence in Philadelphia “Par le regne des maleureux chetis“ —Eustache Deschamps by Urbawel Cidese Say first what caused the violence in Philadelphia; a man named Walter Wallace, Junior, with...

All Divinity Is Love or Wonder* New Harbor October 2020 All Divinity is love or wonder. The moon pulls up the sea, while rocks plunge deeply underneath; ragged, cracked asunder, synclined metamorphic...

Originally Published by the SCP on November 24, 2019   dedicated to my wife, who was mobbed and defamed for political gains They've come before with pitchforks high, With torches beaming off their...

  Truthfulness I walked through our lovely suburban downtown, Which always is ranked as the best. But everywhere windows and doors had gone down, The triumph of peaceful protest. I heard a most...

  On Romantic Longing* Was it when autumn filled the air With musty smells and chimney smoke, This feeling in me first awoke, Which hitherto, had not been there? Or was it on a summer's eve I...

  Pope Urban II Sonnet-Speech, Clermont, 1095 Oh Noblemen, I’m charged by God to warn that Christendom is threatened by the Turk. Torched churches and our pilgrim dead we mourn, whilst in...

Thank you to everyone who participated! This was a great effort for a meaningful purpose: the recent burning down of the Chateau Boswell winery in Napa Valley. Congratulations to the winners. Bravo!  ---Evan...

Introductory Note These paraphrased translations represent two short poems composed by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a person so well-known that I will pass on offering a biography and only note that he lived...

A Wheelchair They kept their car-doors shut and windows closed, Nor left their house but stayed inside, disposed To hide if D were waiting wheelchair-bound Outside. Attendant crew, no siren sound, The...

  On Marriage I married a girl named Sue And alas! She married me too!     As Then, So Now When years ago and many ages since My flaming ardor flared (now fondness thrives For you,...

  On a Turtle of Broken Jade The tiny turtle made of milky jade Was smuggled by Jun’s parents from afar Evoking memories that flame and fade--- Confucian virtue rescued from the war. The treasured...

  She was the one who approached me and spoke, Saying my lectures had swept her away. Maybe we could have occasional chats After class ended, with coffee or drinks? Cued and emboldened, I made an...

  Thoughts following a visit to the World War 2 National Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France. Eugene Ovid Lambert was my name, U.S. Army Airborne casualty. Died on D-Day, that’s my...

  On Voter Fraud after Li Hongzhi’s poem "On the General Election" by Evan Mantyk Is chivalry dead in the hearts of the people? I knew it was lacking but this is pure evil. The stars of the...

  Mary had a little lamb His fleece was white as snow. This little lamb, we’ll call him Stan, Starred at a livestock show. Stan followed her to cooking school Her class was on white...

  Remember, Remember… by Susan Jarvis Bryant No thankful foot falls on the London street In honour of our brave and voiceless dead. Remembrance Sunday’s rendered incomplete Without the...

Shooting Star Upon the early fall of night my eyes behold a shooting star, electric streak in twilight sea, now here alive, then gone you are. What beauty brings this lustrous light well driven by...

The complete new translation can found from Hackett Publishing here. My poem sings of one man forced from Troy by war. Fate harried him to find a home on Latium’s shore— On some Lavinian littoral. By...

originally published on November 2, 2020 on MacKenzie Lyric Poetry Where shall they hide now, the merchants of death, Who cloaked our eyes and robbed our throats of voice, Who muzzled minds and sought to...

  Perfectionist Inclined Maligned by self-encasing brine, defined By certainty's demise, self-image lies Within a shrine. Perfectionist inclined, I crouch transfixed in infinite surmise: Confined by...

  “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” ---Albert Einstein The issue isn’t black or white. It isn’t left, it isn’t...

  Yearning for Castles and Gargoyles Among the towers never made of ivory, protruding lewdly over walls of mottled stone, misshapen forms, insatiably unsavory look down on us. Who takes such agony to...

  Over 100,00 people were killed at Babi Yar between September 29, 1941 and November 6, 1943. Oh, come and gather round to hear This story from afar, As I unfold the tragedy, The tale of Babi...

  Isaac They woke no earlier than usual, just dawn, as though it were another day of tending flocks. At once he saw the way was different, though, not toward the jagged wall of date palms, and...

  Red Skies by Usa W. Celebride Along th’ Atlantic Ocean and around the grand Great Lakes, on the horizon one can see the bright, blue water quakes. It’s after the election, looking east, one...

  A Verse for the Morning After As thieves and pirates count our votes And set us at each other’s throats And fiddle while our cities burn, I wonder, will we ever...

  Retired I’ve lost the ship I banked upon to shield me from this stormy world. For I’ve since crossed the Rubicon and sails no longer loom unfurled that marked my navigating days. My schooner...